Big Tech And Our Future
This is scary. Even asking questions may bring down, as yet unknowable, consequences. You may well want to give up and live in a shack in the middle of nowhere. This is fine, and good luck, but it’s not where I am.
Mostly for my own benefit, I need to pose some questions and answer them as rationally as I can. I need, in my own small way, to be pragmatic about the actions I can take, and my expectations of the actions of others.
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EDM 2650 Letter to my MP
Subject: Support the EDM 2650 - the UK needs a digital sovereignty strategy now
Dear Charlotte Cane MP,
I urge you to support the EDM 2650, to create an urgently needed UK digital sovereignty strategy.
I’ve been working in the tech sector in the UK for 30 years, and am keenly aware of how fundamentally beholden private and public organisations digital services are to foreign companies. Whether it’s the well-known, like Google or Microsoft, or the less visible Palantir, Oracle or AWS - our entire digital infrastructure is owned and run primarily by US tech companies.
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Wait, you're still on X?
Elon Musk OK. So, you ignored warnings like mine from a year ago, and you’re still using and promoting the non-consensual porn and CSAM site, x.com.
😢 “We know it’s bad, but we’ve got a huge audience there.”
But, if that’s true, what does that say about your audience? An audience that comprises of supporters of fascism; creators of inappropriate, offensive, and illegal content; and politically weaponised bots? Is this the audience you want to cultivate?
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Alternatives in UK
If the UK is to become anything other than a digital vassal of the US, we have to have a nose-to-tail digital service infrastructure…
What I mean is… how many digital products, platforms and services are built on Big Tech foundations? It’s incredibly hard to find UK owned and run services. Many, many service-tier offerings (after all, we’re a nation of digital greengrocers), but it’s quite tricky to find replacements for things like Vercel, Digital Ocean or even Dropbox.
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Alternatives to X
OK, so you’ve read my plea to leave X , and you’re thinking… ok, they have a point, but…
How do we start?
First of all, I have to acknowledge that this isn’t a simple as just deleting your account. Many organisations have had a presence on X (fka Twitter) for a long time and have built up a substantial audience. I’m not suggesting you throw that away, yet.
Big Tech And Our Future
Thinking about where media, society and technology meet
An LRG gets deep series
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